Ember of Invention

Cold and ice spells were some of the most common types of magic for people to learn in Glacerhine. It was standard practice to learn some spells to manipulate the constant snow and ice that surrounded them at all times, even if you weren’t a spellcasting class.

Despite this, what wasn’t common was magic to make things colder than they already were. As he watched Dorothea cast a spell that created an aura of cold, the area them now ringed with ice, he could see that even though she had a focus in cryomancy, her understanding of the magic type was different than how Shamans in Glacerhine would understand it. No one in the Glacial Reach would typically need a spell to make things colder.

As the temperature dropped, all three of them saw the ghostly white scales covering their bodies grow thicker and less transparent, expanding to cover more area. Lindle let out a breath and saw the steam escape into the air.

“There, it’s not as cold as it is outside right now, but I can see that it’s working already. Don’t want to push too far just for some testing and get you all sick.”

They shivered as they nodded. None of them were wearing the full complement of furs and other cold weather gear needed to travel outside the grove’s protection, so even though they were all used to the cold, it still affected them.

Lindle pulled on his Con and Res stats to try and ignore it and stopped shivering. He wanted to warm up, but that would probably hurt the amulet's power. He raised his arm and hit his knuckles against the scales floating over his skin. “Okay, let’s see how much tougher these things are now.”

What followed would probably have gotten them a lot of strange looks if they were in public, as they all pelted each other with various magical and physical attacks. They were all hesitant at first, attacking lightly, not wanting to hurt each other but as the scales proved more and more resilient, eventually they all settled into an orderly routine of measured violence.

Humphrey volunteered himself to act at their target for most of their attacks, being the highest level of the three of them and having the most HP and Constitution. They had started with simple punches aimed at the scales, which had been stopped without Humphrey even feeling them. When Lindle had added a [Power Strike], his fist had sunk into the scale like before, and Humphrey had to take a step back, but most of the force had dissipated before it could reach him, and Lindle had needed to quickly rip his hand out of the scale, having taken a couple points of damage from the cold to his HP.

Next they tried several spells to test how the scales reacted to different types of attacks. Thalia used thorn projectiles and vine whips that the scales blocked and froze. When she had used an ice shard spell, the scales not only blocked it completely, they had grown even stronger for several seconds as they did so. However, when Lindle attempted to drop some fire on himself, the scales grew more transparent and weakened for several moments before returning to normal. They still snuffed out the flames before Lindle took any damage, which were only from a tier 1 utility spell to be fair, but it seemed that fire was definitely a vulnerability.

At that point they were all taking turns firing on each other. Dorothea stood back, maintaining her aura spell and acting as an outside observer while taking notes on Lindle’s notepad which he had lent her. Thalia and Lindle both had arrows sticking out of the scales floating over their shoulders from Humphrey’s bow, and thorns and other pieces of summoned plant matter from Thalia’s spells littered the ground around them in frozen pieces.

Neither Thalia nor Humphrey were using their most damaging Techniques or strongest Spells, and Lindle wasn’t wasting any potions to throw for a test, but it was still impressive how much damage the artifacts were soaking up from the continuous attacks they were throwing at each other, all of them only needing to take a small break for Thalia to heal the scant few pieces of damage that had gotten through.

When the time came for Thalia to wildshape into her Dire Wolf form, they all had to stop and stare. The scales over her body gave her wolf shape a menacing sharpness.

“That’s terrifying,” Humphrey said, and Lindle nodded in agreement.

It was difficult for a wolf to be able to look smug, but Thalia managed, admiring the scales for a second, Frostgreed snugly hanging from her neck. Lindle thought it almost seemed like she was wearing a collar, but he wasn’t tactless enough to voice that observation aloud.

They went back to attacking each other for several minutes before Lindle called it. “I think that’s enough for now. If this is how well they protect us now, they’re definitely strong enough for fighting monsters in the Reach. Besides, we shouldn’t drain all our pools and Skill charges before we sign up at the guild.”

“That was more fun than I expected it to be,” Thalia said as she took off her amulet after transforming back to normal.

“Yeah, I feel like I’ve worked out a lot of stress,” Humphrey said with a grin at Lindle, handing him the wristband.

Lindle rolled his eyes as he put all three artifacts back into his pack. He’d give them to his friends to keep later.

“You kids are weird, but that was interesting to watch at least,” Dorothea said, canceling her spell and letting the temperature rise back up to normal. “Those things are going to let you take a lot more risks than most people your level would be able to, but try not to take too many. Too many young adventuring parties die because they think they’re invincible and they push too hard, not realizing they’re over their head until it’s too late.”

She laughed to herself. “Usually it would be Chip that would want to tell you that, but he’s not here right now, so I’ll do it for him.”

Lindle gave her a nod that Thalia echoed. Humphrey hesitated for a moment, but nodded as well.

Thalia led them back out of the training area the way they came, and they all walked from the White Hall. When they arrived, Lindle could spot the guild outpost pretty easily. Unlike most of the buildings in Glacerhine, the adventurers' guild hadn’t built their outpost out of ice, instead, they had constructed it out of stone and wood. It seemed like a waste to Lindle, as they would have to abandon it and then rebuild it when the migration came. It would be destroyed when the first major storm without the grove's protection passed through, so it wouldn’t be here when Glacerhine eventually cycled back to this grove either, but it was their building, so they could do with it as they liked.

Once they were inside, Lindle took in the outpost. He had been in here when he had been looking for an adventuring party to hire him several months ago, but it was still fascinating, and now he had a new way to see it. Various adventuring groups milled around, and Lindle watched them under his Ethos sense. Their personal Ethos all burned like multicolored flames, his and his friends all burning like small embers compared to the variety of powerful bonfires. What was interesting to Lindle was that even their equipment glowed to his sense. He didn’t see any artifacts, but a good half of the adventurers had Ethos wrapped around one or more pieces of their gear. Enchanted items.

Thalia poked him in the side, pulling him away from his staring. Humphrey chuckled quietly behind him.

“Sorry, there’s just a lot of… variety here. Interesting items.”

When Thalia cocked her head, Lindle elaborated. “The enchanted items, lots of adventurers seem to have them here. I would love to get a closer look at one.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Thalia put a finger to her chin. “Hmm, those are hard to find around here, but maybe I could ask my grandma if I could borrow one, I bet she would have one around.”

“I don’t know about asking her…” Lindle said, before Dorothea interrupted their conversation.

Dorothea pointed to the counter, where a few guild workers in uniforms talked with adventurers. “You can get yourselves registered there. I’ll get a look at the quest board to see if there are any good first quests for you to take, keep them from being snagged.”

Lindle thanked her as she left, and the three of them walked up to the counter, where the guild worker gave them a professional smile. “Hello, are you here to take a quest or turn one in?”

“We’re actually here to register as adventurers to the guild, the three of us are forming an adventuring party,” Lindle responded.

The worker’s smile faltered as confusion passed over his face. “Register? Here?”

“Um… Yes? Yes, we are.” Lindle said after a moment's hesitation.

“Ah, of course…” The worker shuffled through some papers. “My apologies, we mostly get already registered adventurers here, I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone attempt to register at this outpost before… I’ll need to see if we have the necessary paperwork…”

He shuffled through some more papers, before excusing himself and heading into the back. Lindle shuffled awkwardly in place as they waited. Some of the other adventurers threw them glances, more accumulating over time.

Eventually, the worker returned, a small dusty box in hand that they pulled a stack of papers from, a triumphant grin on his face. “It took some digging, but we do have the correct paperwork after all, apologies again for the wait sir.”

He set down the papers and pulled out a quill, reading from the paper aloud to them.“If you could give me your names and a general overview of your class and capabilities as a potential adventurer?”

“Um… Lindle Kyte, alchemist, I can throw and use potions at range to support, debuff, or attack.”

“Humphrey Anterom, ranger, I can scout and use archery techniques.”

“Thalia Azeban, druid, I can spellcast and transform into various animals to fight.”

The worker smiled and filled out the forms. “Perfect. I’ll need to ask for a small demonstration of your abilities, but first, you did say you were registering as a party?”

“Yeah that’s correct.”

“Wonderful, have you decided on a name for your party?”

Lindle blinked. They had to have a name for their party?